Romania’s Museums and Art Collections in the Post-War Period: between Historical Writing and Historical Memory

This historiographical essay focuses on a few relevant themes, aiming to capture the evolution of historical writing regarding the recent past of Romania’s museums and art collections. It primarily examines the role of the specialized periodicals focused on foreign countries, for cultural propaganda purposes, while also considering historical sketches, museum catalogs, and academic journals. The article also delves deeper into the content of the late 1950s Bulletin of the Commission of Monuments and Museums, alongside with the compelling topic of museums/objects of religious art. Following 1948, communist Romania assumed an atheistic stance, influenced by the USSR; consequently its State Museum of Religious Art ceased to exist.